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September 26, 2003/Elul 29 5764, Vol. 56, No. 1
Being awake for High Holiday servicesLESLI KOPPELMAN ROSSWe're about to begin the season of the year when synagogues throughout America will be filled. For many attendees, the days spent in them will be among the few, if only, since this time last year. Many will feel out of place, anxious for the ordeal to swiftly end. Yet even for regular synagogue goers, how many of us use the special time as we should - or could?When asked, "What are we supposed to be doing?" most people respond: "praying." To paraphrase the immortal line of a late New York newspaper editor, "No, Saraleh, there is no Jewish prayer." Before everyone who would rather be almost anywhere else on the holidays sighs with relief, let me explain. What we do in synagogue is not prayer according to the common understanding of the word, petitioning God for what we want Him to do: remember us, help us, cure us, give us... This is not the Jewish concept. We get a much better idea of the activity from the Hebrew word for it, hitpaleil. It is a reflexive verb - which means the action is on me myself - and means "reflection" or "self-examination." When we pray, the idea is not to influence God to give us what we want, but to concentrate on what we need to do in order to achieve what we want, to get from where we are to what we can and should be. Rabbinic Hebrew uses the word avodah for prayer, generally translated as "service." (referring originally to the Temple rituals of devotion and sacrifice conducted by the priests) In modern Hebrew avodah means "work." Using the word to apply to what goes on in synagogue reinforces the idea that prayer involves active effort on the part of the one who prays. So when we say we are observing the holidays, as we commonly do, we certainly don't want to mean it literally. Anyone who merely sits in synagogue because he or she feels a sense of obligation, or thinks of it as a kind of insurance policy (as if the fact of making an appearance will somehow appease God and result in being written into the Book of Life for another year) is missing the point - and an incredible opportunity. You get no points just for showing up; you must be engaged in the process. The great scholar Nachmanides said that proper worship of God would have a beneficial impact. It would bring an improvement in thought and behavior by leading us to live more virtuously and thereby bring us closer to perfection - which is what God is. Of course we need help. That is why we have set prayers (rather than relying on our own limited abilities to articulate the thoughts and feelings so eloquently communicated in predetermined formats.) They remind us of the ideal situation, they provide meaningful standards against which we can assess ourselves, and they express what we strive to attain. That's not to say it is an easy process. Even people who attend synagogue regularly, even very observant people, have difficulty with prayer. One approach is to think of liturgy as poetry or great literature - which in large part it is. In order to truly understand a literary work - not just its component words - we must be educated in its art form. We need an understanding of its particular vocabulary, use of language and devices. The same holds for liturgy. On the holidays whose most powerful images are the heavenly books to record the names of the righteous, the wicked and the rest of us, it would be a wasted opportunity if the machzor (High Holiday prayer book) remained a closed book. You will do yourself a huge favor by getting a guide to the High Holiday services. An excellent choice is the "Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur Survival Kit" (Leviathan Press, $14.95 paperback). It is witty and smart, often amusing, frequently moving, and, though small, packed with information and insights that will give you a fantastic appreciation for what's going on and, more important, how to participate. Some machzorim contain more information than others about the meaning of proceedings, the background of various prayers, and so on, and can be very helpful. You can also get a companion book of inspirational readings on the holiday's themes. Take these materials with you to synagogue. Use them to help you find meaning in the liturgy and use the time constructively. Through them you will understand that the prayers tell us about the nature of the universe and our place within it. If we focus on what we are really praying, we'll think about how we fit in. While we are expressing universal hopes, we'll be evaluating personal situations. If we comprehend this, the day is not just a long wait for services to end, or just a recitation of praises or repetitions of request for peace and the well-being of all mankind, for forgiveness and salvation for Jews and the Jewish people. It becomes a reflection on what each of our lives is and can be about. Adapted from "The Lifetime Guide to the Jewish Holidays: Abundant Ways to Bring the Joy, Meaning and Relevance of Celebration into Your Home and Heart Year After Year," by Lesli Koppelman Ross (Jewish Legacy Press, $29.95 paperback) |
